KristyWes

Keep Christmas

First, a poem:

Judah's Lion by Keith Patman

Where does the lion, Judah's golden lion walk?
Stealthy under star by winter night his soft paws stalk.
Out on lonely hills a cold wind howls and darkness scowls;
Shepherds shiver - danger in the dark! - some wild beast prowls.
Suddenly up springs a light; a voice rings like a bell:
"Joy, oh men of Judah! Come and see! Noel! Noel!"
Where lies Judah's longed-for lion? "Come and see the sight!
Fear not - your golden one is couched among the lambs tonight."

So here we are, just 3 days after Christmas, and already I've left the manger behind in the dust as I chase after my old friends: worldiness, worry, and anxiety about the future. I caught myself in this today, and felt frustrated. I had had such a good Advent season, meditating on the manger and trying to fathom even a fraction of the mystery contained in the idea of "Incarnation." But was I changed by it at all, if I can so quickly slip back into old patterns and perspectives?

Maybe the mistake was in gazing at the manger then marching away, leaving it behind on December 25th. The manger, of course, is not just a useful symbol for one part of the year, but for every day - to call to mind that night when the world changed, when my world changed - that night, the light, the humility, faith and fulfillment summed up in the Christmas story.

So today I stopped, re-read the poem above, and tried to focus my fretful little mind on the miracle of Lion & Lamb, tried for the thousandth time to imagine what the shepherds must have felt (it always makes me cry!), tried to decipher what it meant for God to come near, and tried to remember that He did it, in part, to take on & take over my worldiness, worry, and anxiety.

Then I remembered that I had this key with me all along (a la Dorothy and her ruby slippers) - the gang on Sesame Street had instructed me long ago, in their TV special "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street." You remember the one, right? Big Bird wonders how Santa fits down the chimney, Cookie Monster eats Bob's Christmas tree, Bert trades his paper-clip collection to buy a soap dish for Ernie's rubber duckie, and we all learned a valuable lesson about giving? Anyways, one of the songs from the show goes like this:

"Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer."

Simple but wise words, you sage Muppets! As we leave December, I will try not to leave Christmas, but instead to look each day for the manger, and the golden One couched there.